Correlations and their Dynamics in Freeway Networks

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Karl Thomas Guhr; Professor Dr. Michael Schreckenberg
• Subject Area: Traffic and Transport Systems, Intelligent and Automated Traffic
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 418382724

Traffic problems become ever more urgent, as we regularly realize when listening to the traffic news on the radio. In the last years with more and more data becoming available, new opportunities have opened up, making traffic an object for big data research. What happens on individual streets/roads is well understood. Much less is known about the mutual influences of the connected streets/roads, particularly how traffic jams or other disturbances spread out in the network. To investigate that, we will apply modern methods from statistical physics of complex systems which were developed and tested in other fields, especially in research on financial markets. Concrete objective is to better understand the functionality of the freeway network in North Rhine Westphalia.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants